New Delhi, 28 October (H.S.): The New India Foundation (NIF) has announced a five-book shortlist for the Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay NIF Book Prize 2026. Published in 2025, the shortlisted works explore significant themes, including the history of modern and contemporary India, constitution-making, the country’s development since Independence, and the partition of Asia. The selection also features books examining the lives of political leaders, diplomats and notable figures associated with Hindustani classical music.

The jury for the 2026 prize comprises N. Chandrasekaran, chairman of Tata Sons and the Tata Group; political scientist Niraja Gopal Jayal; Rahul Matthan, partner at Trilegal; historian of science Jahnavi Phalkey; historian Srinath Raghavan; former Foreign Secretary of India Nirupama Rao; and entrepreneur Manish Sabharwal.

The five shortlisted books are A Man for All Seasons: The Life of K. M. Panikkar by Narayani Basu, published by Westland-Context; Shattered Lands: Five Partitions and the Making of Modern Asia by Sam Dalrymple, published by HarperCollins-Fourth Estate; Assembling India’s Constitution: A New Democratic History by Rohit De and Ornit Shani, published by Penguin Random House-Allen Lane; A Sixth of Humanity: Independent India’s Development Odyssey by Devesh Kapur and Arvind Subramanian, published by HarperCollins; and The Secret Master: Arun Kashalkar and a Journey to the Edge of Music by Sumana Ramanan, published by Westland-Context.

Jury chair Niraja Gopal Jayal welcomed the shortlist, noting that all five books demonstrated the importance of deeply researched and imaginative nonfiction in understanding India. She said the works were exceptional in bringing significant aspects of the country’s experiences to the fore, adding that the breadth of scholarship and diversity of subjects represented on the shortlist were particularly noteworthy.

The winner of the 2026 prize will be announced in December. The award ceremony is scheduled to take place on December 12 at the Bengaluru Literature Festival. The winning author will receive a cash prize of Rs. 15 lakh.

Instituted in 2018, the Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay NIF Book Prize is regarded as one of India’s leading literary awards for nonfiction on modern and contemporary India. It recognises works originally written in English or translated into English and encompasses a wide range of nonfiction genres.

Previous recipients include Aparajit Ramnath, who won the 2025 prize for Engineering a Nation: The Life and Career of M. Visvesvaraya; Ashok Gopal, who received the award in 2024 for A Part Apart: The Life and Thought of B. R. Ambedkar; and Akshaya Mukul, who won in 2023 for Writer, Rebel, Soldier, Lover: The Many Lives of Agyeya.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar